


Finch as Italian Official:  "The Portrait" #2 [FANART]

by Wanderer



Series: Reese and Finch Throughout History [13]
Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Borgia family, Friendship, Italian Renaissance, Love, M/M, Slash, historic AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-08
Updated: 2014-09-08
Packaged: 2018-02-16 14:23:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 0
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2273103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wanderer/pseuds/Wanderer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reese as Giovanni Farnese, Finch as Enrico Machiavelli, featuring Machiavelli's portrait this time, in a matching frame.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Finch as Italian Official:  "The Portrait" #2 [FANART]

 

**Author's Note:**

> The year is 1500, three years after Enrico Machiavelli and Giovanni Farnese first met. They’ve been working together ever since, mostly successfully, and many Florentines now owe their lives to the pair. None of those they’ve saved have ever met Harold, and few have recognized Giovanni, who uses aliases and whose father, Rodrigo Borgia, never acknowledged him as his son. Farnese has taken care to ensure that the people he and Enrico have saved from prison, believe that he was working alone. The few who have realized who Giovanni is, were sternly warned by him never to divulge his identity to anyone. Farnese is such a darkly formidable man that those he saves are both grateful to him and a bit frightened of him. Giovanni is satisfied with that, as it means they will never betray him to the authorities in Florence. If anyone dared to try, Machiavelli would bring all his wealth and cunning to bear, to ensure that that person would be both disbelieved and financially ruined.
> 
> Since they’ve begun working together, Giovanni and Enrico have grown extremely close. First they warily became friends, then they risked their lives for each other, and finally, when Giovanni’s mother died a year ago and Enrico sought to comfort him, they became lovers. Giovanni realized that Enrico had given him so much, everything that he now holds dear, and he wanted to give him something special in return. He also wanted something of his mother's to remember her by; but he knew that to cross his father's threshold again would mean his death, if he were caught. So he stole back into the Borgias' huge Florentine home one night, through a hidden back passage known to only a few in the family, and reclaimed the portrait his beloved mother had commissioned of him. He knew Rodrigo wouldn't want it, and that Machiavelli would love to have it. Besides, even if the 'theft' infuriated Rodrigo and he suspected Giovanni of it, there's little he could do about it. Borgia has no idea where his bastard son now lives. Enrico owns many homes in Florence and Rome, under many names, and he and Giovanni shift between them frequently, to make themselves harder to find. 
> 
> Enrico's look of wonder, his smile of gratitude when Giovanni presented him with his portrait, made his dangerous foray into Rodrigo's lair more than worthwhile.
> 
> There are rumors about them in Florence now. Whispers of a mysterious benefactor, who sometimes rescues those who’ve been accused of crimes. A young artist named Leonardo of Vinci, who’s in a dark prison cell after being charged with ‘unnatural relations’ with men, clings to the hope that those rumors have some basis in fact. Otherwise, his artistic career and his future will be over. Luckily for him, Enrico is a cultured man and an art lover who's seen Leonardo's amazing talent; and he has no intention of allowing the young genius to be locked away. He's already arranged for Giovanni to pay him a visit, and assure Leonardo that he will soon be released.
> 
> Some six months ago, Giovanni hired an artist himself, to paint a portrait of his friend and lover. He feels his money was well-spent, for the artist skillfully captured the essence of Enrico Machiavelli: his enigmatic, quirky smile, sharply intelligent gaze and beautifully shaped, capable hands. 
> 
> Giovanni had the artist include some objects in the portrait that might seem commonplace or perhaps puzzling to anyone else, but which have private meaning to Enrico and himself. The papers which Enrico often pins to the walls in his homes, with the lists of names and the documents (often secret and soon destroyed) relating to those who he and Enrico are trying to save. Enrico’s notebook, in which he records their successes and failures in those endeavors, and the quills and ink he uses to write in it. The simple, carved wooden container where he keeps his brand new, unused quills. A few coins, to signify his lover's vast wealth. A candle that’s mostly burned down, to symbolize the long hours that Machiavelli works. A book, as he’s fond of reading for pleasure. 
> 
> The last but most important item which Giovanni has the artist include in Enrico's portrait is the exquisitely carved cameo which Enrico often wears proudly pinned to his fine silk shirt, depicting Eros riding a lion. It’s a somewhat uncommon subject for a brooch, yet not so unusual as to attract unwanted attention, either. The expensive jewelry was a gift from Giovanni on Enrico’s last birthday. It features both the god of Love and a lion, because as Giovanni fondly told Enrico when he gave it to him, “This is how I see you. I have never known another man who embodies both love and strength, as you do.” 
> 
> Now these two portraits, Giovanni’s and Enrico’s, hang side by side with matching frames, in a place of honor: in Enrico’s large, sunlit bedroom in his favorite home.
> 
> What that symbolizes, I’ll leave to your imagination. : )


End file.
